1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to providing individuals with mobile access to events generated by online services via push-to-talk devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
People increasingly rely on electronic messaging and notification services to communicate and manage information. Online service providers such as MSN®, Yahoo® and AOL® allow individuals having accounts with their service to receive and send email, store contact and calendar information, communicate through instant messaging services, and receive and generate reminders for events. The increasingly mobile nature of users, and the diverse nature of mobile devices, makes providing mobile users with access to online services and other electronically stored information difficult.
Mobile devices can include personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, cellular phones, or other wireless devices, such as “smart” phones. Wireless devices, including some PDA's and cellular phones, can access information from online service providers or other host systems. Normally, such devices require specific application programs or a World Wide Web interface to gain access to the online service information of the user. The Web interface provided by such mobile devices is often much more limited than a standard desktop computer Web browser. Online web services have difficulty reaching service subscribers who are not using a desktop computer since web applications for online service provides do not operate well on the limited web interface of mobile devices. Many online service providers build data connectivity interfaces to cellular networks and develop client side applications for mobile devices. However, the effort of deploying data connectivity based clients onto mobile devices is difficult due to slow penetration of smart phones, many users reluctance to use non-voice features of their phone, and the difficulty of porting web-service enabled client applications to mobile devices due to variety of mobile-devices operating systems and programming environments.
Reminder messages can also be sent through messenger services, such as MSN® Messenger, Yahoo® Messenger, and AOL® messenger. However, reminders sent through these services must be accessible to the messenger service provider. Each of the aforementioned providers generally has access only to users who have enabled accounts with a corresponding service provider who stores content for the user. Hence, a user who stores information with one service must use that services' corresponding messenger service to provide reminders through this mechanism.
While some online services have experimented with providing audio based interfaces, such interfaces are generally slow and difficult for users to interact with. They use voice recognition technology to allow users to respond to audio prompts allowing the user to, for example, have email read to them after phoning into the service.
Push-to-talk, commonly abbreviated as PTT, is a method of conversing on half-duplex communication lines, by pushing a button in order to send voice communication from one's device, and releasing the button to receive voice communication. While PTT is a feature that is available on certain cellular phone models, the feature has expanded to use in messenger and voice-over-IP applications. Indeed, the feature can conceivably be enabled on any communications network.
In the mobile environment, PTT allows a mobile phone to function as a digital two-way radio in push-to-talk operation. Currently, PTT users must to belong to the same mobile operator's (carrier's) network. Current providers include Nextel® Communications, Verizon® Wireless and Sprint® PCS in the United States. Each service uses a different technology. Nextel uses Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) technology which combines communications and telephony systems in a single device. Verizon's service runs over a CDMA 1xRTT high speed data network and is based on voice-over-IP.
The PTT market, both for wireless and non-wireless communications is growing. A means for providing access to user information via PTT would be useful.